STATE OF THE SERVICE REPORT

State of the Service Series 2009–10

Contact and acknowledgement information

Enquiries or suggestions about the State of the Service Report are welcome and shouldbe directed to: <>.

Electronic copies of the report are available at: <

Production team

APS Workforce Group (Group Manager):David Schmidtchen

State of the Service Team (Director):Marian Allen

State of the Service Team (Assistant Director):Tamara Erlandson

Principal Drafters and Researchers: David Schmidtchen, Marian Allen,Tamara Erlandson, Meg Owens, Karin Fisher, Sue Johnson, Leon Sewell, Paul Casimir,Kathryn Dahlenburg, Fran Chapman, Claire Kaczmarek, Jane Young, Craig Brown,Chris Giuliano and Dr Derek Drinkwater.

The report includes significant contributions and input from the APSED Team and allGroups of the Commission.

The report was designed and typeset by Jayne Abel.

Website design by Andrew Glenn.

© Commonwealth of Australia 2010

This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may bereproduced by any process without prior written permission by the Commonwealth. Requests and enquiriesconcerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to the Commonwealth Copyright Administration,Attorney-General’s Department, National Circuit, Barton, ACT 2600, or posted at: <

ISBN 978-0-9808786-0-8

CONTENTS

_Toc282163005

List of tables

List of figures

Preface

Commissioner’s overview

THEME 1: LEADERSHIP & CULTURE

Chapter One: Strategic leadership

Leadership cadre

Size and composition

Age profile

Depth of experience on entering the SES

Diversity

SES employee satisfaction and engagement

Employee views on the quality of SES leadership

Building APS leadership skills

Talent and succession management

Key chapter findings

Chapter Two: Employee Engagement…………………………………………………………………………………..45

Benchmarking of APS employee perceptions

Improving employee engagement

Workplace outcomes of employee engagement

Employee engagement across demographic groups

Work-life balance and leave management

Key chapter findings

Chapter three: Values and ethical standards in the APS

Strengthening the ethics infrastructure

Embedding the APS Values and Code of Conduct

Ethics Advisory Service

Key chapter findings

THEME 2: CAPABILITY, INNOVATION & COLLABORATION

Chapter four: Delivering better services for citizens

Putting citizens at the centre

Improving citizen access to services through technology

Collaboration with non-government stakeholders on service delivery

Collaboration across government boundaries on service delivery

Improving collaboration on services through technology

Service quality and evaluations

Key chapter findings

Chapter five: Enhancing policy capability

Collaborative, innovative and strategic practices

Strategic policy based on strong data and effective analysis

Stronger partnerships forged with external organisations

Feedback from ministerial offices

Policy designed with implementation in mind

Key chapter findings

Chapter six: Agency agility, capability and efficiency

Principles of better governance

Agency strategies to manage risk

Promoting agency innovation

Agency efficiency measures and red tape reduction

Key chapter findings

THEME 3: HUMAN CAPITAL MANAGEMENT

Chapter seven: Strengthening the workforce

Coordinated workforce planning

Streamlined recruitment and improved retention

Strategic learning and development

Clear and aligned employment conditions to support greater mobility

Key chapter findings

Chapter eight: Diversity

Workplace diversity

Trends in representation of EEO groups

Indigenous employees

Employees with disability

Employees from a non-English speaking background…………………………………………………………208

Key chapter findings

Chapter nine: APS staffing profile

APS employment trends

Ongoing and non-ongoing employees

Male and female employment

Part-time employment

Classification structures

Women by classification

Workforce agility

Age profile

Location

Engagements and separations

Key chapter findings

Appendixes

Appendix 1: APS agencies and APS employees

Appendix 2: Survey methodologies

Appendix 3: Factor analysis

Glossary

List of tables

Table 1.1:

/ Agency reporting of skill set gaps for the SES and the SES feeder group, 2009–10 / 36

Table 2.1:

/ Hours worked in the last fortnight by full-time employees, 2009–10 / 57

Table 2.2:

/ Levels of workplace absence by APS agency, 2009–10 / 59

Table 2.3:

/ Comparison of sick leave rates, 2008 to 2010 / 61

Table 3.1:

/ Finalised investigations and breaches of the APS Code of Conduct, 2006–07 to 2009–10 / 79

Table 3.2:

/ Elements of the Code of Conduct suspected of being breached in finalised investigations, 2008–09 and 2009–10 / 81

Table 3.3:

/ Types of misconduct in finalised investigations, 2008–09 and 2009–10 / 82

Table 3.4:

/ Outcomes of investigations into suspected breaches of the Code of Conduct, 2008–09 and 2009–10 / 83

Table 3.5:

/ Nature of enquiries made to the EAS by location, 2009–10 / 87

Table 3.6:

/ Agency use of the EAS, 2009–10 / 88

Table 5.1:

/ Extent of agency consultation with groups on various functions, 2009–10 / 126

Table 6.1:

/ Top 10 risks for business, 2005–06 to 2007–08 / 135

Table 7.1:

/ Workforce risks facing agencies in the next five years, 2009–10 / 156

Table 7.2:

/ Employees needed to meet identified skill gaps, 2009–10 / 160

Table 7.3:

/ Time-to-fill statistics for ongoing non-SES and ongoing SES, 2009–10 / 166

Table 7.4:

/ Employees’ views on recruitment experience, 2007–08 and 2009–10 / 167

Table 7.5:

/ Time spent on off-the-job learning and development in the last 12 months, 2009–10 / 172

Table 7.6:

/ Expenditure on formal off-the-job learning and development, 2009–10 / 173

Table 7.7:

/ Agencies’ top five learning and development priorities for each classification level, 2010–11 / 174

Table 7.8:

/ Employees who have been at their current classification for at least five years and the perceived changes in their work, 2009–10 / 178

Table 7.9:

/ Comparative levels of total remuneration package, 2009 / 180

Table 8.1:

/ Representation of EEO groups among ongoing employees, 2001 to 2010 / 186

Table 8.2:

/ Agencies targeting recruitment and retention strategies to particular people, 2009–10 / 188

Table 8.3:

/ Agencies with the highest proportion of ongoing Indigenous employees, June 2010 / 190

Table 8.4:

/ Representation of Indigenous employees by classification, 1996, 2009 and 2010 / 191

Table 8.5:

/ Indigenous representation in engagements and separations of ongoing employees, 2000–01 to 2009–10 / 192

Table 8.6:

/ Top five agency attraction attributes and meeting expectations for Indigenous and non-Indigenous employees, 2009–10 / 196

Table 8.7:

/ Representation of employees with disability in engagements and separations of ongoing employees, 2000–01 to 2009–10 / 200

Table 8.8:

/ Top five agency attraction attributes and meeting expectations for employees with and without disability, 2009–10 / 201

Table 8.9:

/ Agency initiatives to improve access to employment for people with disability, 2007–08 to 2009–10 / 203

Table 8.10:

/ Agency initiatives to improve support to employees with disability and managers of employees with disability, 2008–09 and 2009–10 / 205

Table 8.11:

/ Top five agency attraction attributes and meeting expectations for employees from a non-English speaking background, 2009–10 / 210

Table 9.1:

/ Ongoing employees by base classification, 1996, 2009 and 2010 / 224

Table 9.2:

/ Ongoing employees—number of agencies worked in, 2001 and 2010 / 228

Table 9.3:

/ Ongoing employees—proportion by classification and location, June 2010 / 231

Table 9.4:

/ Separations of ongoing employees by age group, 2008–09 and 2009–10 / 237

List of figures

Figure 1.1:

/ SES employees that ‘definitely’ felt part of an APS-wide leadership cadre/group, 2006–07 to2009–10 / 25

Figure 1.2:

/ Annual growth of ongoing SES and all APS employees, 1996–97 to 2009–10 / 26

Figure 1.3:

/ Age profile of SES employees, June 1996 and June 2010 / 27

Figure 1.4:

/ Number of agencies worked in by staff joining the SES, 1989–90 to 2009–10 / 28

Figure 1.5:

/ Representation of women moving into and out of the SES, 1995–96 to 2009–10 / 29

Figure 1.6:

/ Representation of EEO groups in SES, June 1996 to June 2010 / 30

Figure 1.7:

/ Employee views on the quality of SES leadership, 2008–09 and 2009–10 / 32

Figure 1.8:

/ The SES leadership attributes most commonly selected by SES and all APS employees as important,2009–10 / 33

Figure 1.9:

/ SES and APS employee satisfaction with leadership attributes displayed by SES leaders, 2009–10 / 34

Figure 1.10:

/ Leadership development offered to SES and EL staff, 2009–10 / 37

Figure 1.11:

/ Matrix to classify the performance and potential of employees / 39

Figure 2.1:

/ APS employee perceptions compared with UK and US government employee data, 2007 to 2010 / 46

Figure 2.2:

/ Employee satisfaction for the employee engagement factors, 2009–10 / 48

Figure 2.3:

/ Benchmarking of APS areas for improvement in employee engagement, 2007 to 2010 / 49

Figure 2.4:

/ Employee engagement and willingness to be innovative, 2009–10 / 52

Figure 2.5:

/ Employee engagement and intention to leave, 2009–10 / 53

Figure 2.6:

/ Employee satisfaction for factors by classification, 2009–10 / 54

Figure 2.7:

/ Employee satisfaction for factors by length of service in the APS, 2009–10 / 55

Figure 2.8:

/ Employee satisfaction/agreement with questions comprising the Work-Life Balance factor, 2008–09and 2009–10 / 56

Figure 2.9:

/ Comparison of employee engagement levels with unscheduled absence rates, 2009–10 / 60

Figure 2.10:

/ Strategies agencies used to manage workplace absence, 2008–09 and 2009–10 / 61

Figure 2.11:

/ Strategies agencies used to manage annual leave, 2008–09 and 2009–10 / 63

Figure 3.1:

/ Employee views on most important core skills for current job, 2009–10 / 76

Figure 3.2:

/ Agency learning and development activities for the APS Values, 2009–10 / 77

Figure 3.3:

/ Measures used to identify suspected breaches of the APS Code of Conduct, 2008–09 and 2009–10 / 80

Figure 4.1:

/ Extent of employee interaction with non-government stakeholders in the last 12 months, 2008–09and 2009–10 / 94

Figure 4.2:

/ Frequency of agency consultation with non-government stakeholders on service delivery to thegeneral public, 2009–10 / 95

Figure 4.3:

/ Frequency of agency collaboration on service delivery to the general public, 2009–10 / 96

Figure 4.4:

/ Social media and networking tools used to engage with external stakeholders, 2009–10 / 99

Figure 4.5:

/ Employee access to, and use of, social media and networking tools, 2009–10 / 100

Figure 4.6:

/ Service delivery employee perceptions, 2009–10 / 102

Figure 4.7:

/ Agency reporting against service delivery performance indicators or service standards, 2008–09and 2009–10 / 103

Figure 4.8:

/ Agency mechanisms for collecting feedback from the public, 2007–08 to 2009–10 / 104

Figure 4.9:

/ Service delivery employee perceptions on inclusion of stakeholder views in service delivery,2009–10 / 107

Figure 4.10:

/ Frequency of agency use of feedback collected from the public, 2009–10 / 109

Figure 5.1:

/ Extent of agency consultation with groups on policy development and/or review, 2007–08 to2009–10 / 117

Figure 5.2:

/ SES and EL perceptions of factors influencing collaboration, 2009–10 / 118

Figure 5.3:

/ Four key phases in public sector innovation / 121

Figure 5.4:

/ Employee perceptions of innovation in the workplace, 2009–10 / 123

Figure 5.5:

/ Employee perceptions of interactions with non-government stakeholders, 2009–10 / 128

Figure 6.1:

/ Agencies with risk assessment policies/procedures in place, 2009–10 / 139

Figure 6.2:

/ Employee perceptions of APS innovation, 2007–08 to 2009–10 / 143

Figure 6.3:

/ Employee views on innovation by classification, 2009–10 / 144

Figure 7.1:

/ Australian population history and projections / 152

Figure 7.2:

/ Status of agencies’ workforce plans, 2009–10 / 154

Figure 7.3:

/ Agencies with difficulty recruiting or retaining skill sets and that indicated this difficulty had amoderate or severe impact on agency capability, 2009–10 / 159

Figure 7.4:

/ APS ICT employee and ICT contractor workforce, 30 June 2010 / 162

Figure 7.5:

/ Need for ICT capability improvements, 2009–10 / 163

Figure 7.6:

/ Methods agencies used to measure recruitment performance, 2009–10 / 165

Figure 7.7:

/ Employee length of service in the APS at time of separation, 2009–10 / 170

Figure 7.8:

/ Range between minimum and maximum salary by classification, 1996 and 2009 / 181

Figure 8.1:

/ Agency measures used to recruit and/or retain Indigenous Australians, 2009–10 / 194

Figure 8.2:

/ Representation of ongoing employees with disability, 1996 to 2010 / 199

Figure 9.1:

/ APS employees, 1991 to 2010 / 217

Figure 9.2:

/ Non-ongoing employees as a proportion of total employees, 1996 to 2010 / 218

Figure 9.3:

/ Total employment by sex, 1996 to 2010 / 220

Figure 9.4:

/ Proportion of ongoing employees working part-time by sex, 1996 to 2010 / 221

Figure 9.5:

/ Proportion of ongoing employees working part-time by age group and sex, June 2010 / 222

Figure 9.6:

/ Ongoing employees—engagement and promotion rates for women, 2009–10 / 225

Figure 9.7:

/ Ongoing employees—promotion and transfer rates between agencies, 1999–00 to 2009–10 / 227

Figure 9.8:

/ Ongoing employees—change in proportion by age group, 1996 to 2010 / 230

Figure 9.9:

/ Ongoing engagement and separation rates, 1995–96 to 2009–10 / 233

Figure 9.10:

/ Engagements of ongoing employees by classification, 1995–96 to 2009–10 / 234

Figure 9.11:

/ Ongoing engagements by age group, 1995–96 to 2009–10 / 235

Figure 9.12:

/ Ongoing separations, 1995–96 to 2009–10 / 236

Figure 9.13:

/ Resignation/retirement rate for selected ages, 1995–96 to 2009–10 / 238

Preface

Section 44 of the Public Service Act 1999 (the PS Act) provides that the Australian Public Service Commissioner must issue a report each year to the agency’s Minister for presentation to the Australian Parliament. The report must include a report onthe state of the Australian Public Service (APS) during the year.

The State of the Service Report 2009–10 details the activities and human resourcemanagement practices of APS agencies during 2009–10. The report outlines some of the keyachievements and contributions agencies have made in assisting the government during thisperiod to meet its policy objectives and achieve its stated outcomes.

This year’s State of the Service Report is the thirteenth annual report on the state of the APSthat Australian Public Service Commissioners have presented to parliament. The report has been significantly enhanced since it commenced in 1998, including the addition of an annual online agency survey and a representative employee survey with up to eight years of dataavailable on key issues. Findings from this year’s surveys have been used to assess thecapability of the APS to meet the demands of an increasingly challenging environment.

The State of the Service Report draws on a range of information sources but its main data sources are two State of the Service surveys—one of agencies and the other of employees.The agency survey includes all APS agencies employing at least 20 staff under the PS Act. All 98 APS agencies, or semi-autonomous parts of agencies, that were invited to participate in the online agency survey in June 2010, completed the survey. These agencies are listed atAppendix 1.

To aid analysis of survey data, and for comparability with previous years’ data, agencies have again been grouped according to size. Of the 98 responding agencies, 23 were classified as large (>1,000 APS employees), 31 as medium (251–1,000 APS employees) and44 as small (20–250 APS employees). These size categories are generally consistent withthose used by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO).1 Appendix 1 providesinformation on agencies’ APS employee numbers.

The employee survey involved a stratified random sample of 8,732 employees from APSagencies with at least 100 APS employees. A total of 5,607 valid responses were received,representing a response rate of 64%, which was similar to previous years. The sample sizeand number of valid responses allows a range of cross-tabulations to be used with a degreeof confidence. Consistent with last year, this year’s report draws on factor analysis tointerpret employee survey data. Agencies with at least 400 employees are provided withtheir own individual agency-specific results for internal management purposes.

While the size groupings for large and medium agencies are the same for the agency and employee surveys, it should be noted that, for the purposes of the employee survey, ‘small’refers to agencies with between 100 and 250 APS employees. Appendix 2 providesinformation on the employee and agency survey methodologies.

The Australian Public Service Commission engaged the services of ORIMA Research to help design, deliver and compile statistical output from both surveys. When designing the first employee survey, the Commission also engaged the Australian Bureau of Statistics toadvise on aspects of survey methodology; this advice continues to be used.

Agency contact officers in a number of agencies (including the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, CRS Australia, National Archives of Australia, Medicare Australia and Safe Work Australia) helped develop and pilot test the agency survey. A number ofindividual APS employees from various agencies helped pilot test the employee survey. TheCommission is very grateful for this input.

Two publications have been produced in association with the State of the Service Report2009–10: theAustralian Public Service Statistical Bulletin 2009–10 and the State of theService Employee Survey Results 2009–10. A summary pamphlet, the State of the Service2009–10 At a Glance, has also been prepared. These publications are available at:

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1ANAO, Staff Reductions in the Australian Public Service, Performance Audit Report No. 49, 1998–99,Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, 1999, <

Commissioner’s overview

The starting point for this year’s evaluation of the state of the service is Ahead of theGame: Blueprint for the Reform of Australian Government Administration (the APSReform Blueprint),1 which was released in March 2010. Prepared by an AdvisoryGroup chaired by the Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet,Mr Terry Moran, this report provided a comprehensive assessment of the forcesshaping the Australian Public Service (APS) and the challenges that it faces in meetingthem. I was a member of the Advisory Group and there is no purpose in repeating the analysis of that report here. The Group’s overall conclusion was that the APS compareswell with its peers but, like any organisation interested in maximising its performance,has opportunities to lift its game, including by learning from the practices andexperiences of other jurisdictions. A number of recommendations were made, all ofwhich have been accepted by government. A challenge for the APS is to secure thenecessary resources to invest in worthwhile improvements in APS practices.

A key feature of the APS Reform Blueprint is a strong reaffirmation of the importance of ensuring the APS continually updates its skill base and organisational systems so it has thecapability to identify and respond to emerging issues in a timely fashion. In recent years theAPS has performed creditably through a period of great change, adapting to a newgovernment, to significant new policy challenges (such as climate change, reforms toCommonwealth–State financial arrangements and a renewed focus on Indigenousdisadvantage) and to the exigencies of delivering timely responses to the global financialcrisis. Even so, a number of Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) reports haveidentified areas in which the performance of parts of the APS could have been considerablybetter, particularly in terms of the adequacy of existing organisational capability and governance. In a number of cases agencies were asked to assume functions, especially delivery functions, where there was limited portfolio experience or appropriately skilledresources upon which to draw. Sometimes the essence of the policy response was the needfor speedier than desirable implementation in such circumstances, the risks of which maynot have been well appreciated.

The contemporary APS requires a broad range of skills including high-level policy analysis, managing relationships, articulating and addressing risk, service delivery, and program implementation. Increasingly, policy issues are multidisciplinary and sufficiently complex torequire a range of perspectives to be brought to bear and systems thinking applied.Similarly, effective implementation frequently requires the marshalling of a range of skillsand interests. These complex skills draw on domains of formal knowledge but most importantly also require the APS to maintain human capital systems that can identify,develop and manage the skill sets and talent of APS employees, and relate them to thecurrent and future ‘business’ of the APS.